Anna Sewell was not a lucky woman. Born to Quaker parents in Norfolk in 1820, she spent her childhood following her father\u2019s job as a salesman and then a banker. Initially educated at home by her mother, she started attending a school in Stoke Newington, London when she was about 12. But then one day, she was running home in the rain and slipped, badly injuring both her ankles.<\/p>\n
In that instant, Sewell\u2019s life changed forever. She never truly recovered from the accident: unable to walk without a crutch or stand for long, her mother wrote of her \u201clife of constant frustration\u201d. For the rest of her life Sewell lived with her parents, blighted by severe pain and troubled by religious doubt.<\/p>\n
Her consolation was her love of animals. Due to her injury, Sewell relied on horses to get about, and she became a passionate opponent of cruelty to animals. In 1871, she decided to write a book \u201cto induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses\u201d. The innovation, though, was that Sewell wrote from the horse\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n
The result, published in November 1877 by Jarrold & Sons, was\u00a0Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, The Autobiography of a Horse<\/em>. Supposedly \u201ctranslated from the original equine\u201d, it was a colossal hit, selling tens of millions of copies worldwide.<\/p>\n Sewell died five months after publication, just long enough to see\u00a0Black Beauty<\/em>\u00a0become a success. One scholar calls it \u201cthe most influential anti-cruelty novel of all time\u201d.<\/p>\n Philosopher Baruch Spinoza is born in Amsterdam.<\/p>\n British soldier John Churchill, the future Duke of Marlborough, deserts King James II\u2019s army at Salisbury and joins the forces of William of Orange.<\/p>\n Birth in Manchester of Frances Eliza Hodgson. As Frances Hodgson Burnett, she wrote over 20 novels for adults but is best-known for her childrens\u2019 fiction, notably the books Little Lord Fauntleroy<\/em>, The Little Princess<\/em> and The Secret Garden<\/em>.<\/p>\n A hijacker known as Dan Cooper parachuted out of a Boeing 727 plane near Mount St Helens, Washington with $200,000 in 20 dollar bills. He was never seen again.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Frank Loesser\u2019s Guys and Dolls<\/em> premiered at Broadway\u2019s 46th Street Theatre. The musical ran for 1,200 performances and collected five Tony Awards in 1951, including Best Musical.<\/p>\n Browse more On this day in history<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> By Dominic Sandbrook Published: Wednesday, 24 November 2021 at 12:00 am 24 November 1877: Black Beauty hits the shelves The anti-animal-cruelty tale enthrals millions of readers Anna Sewell was not a lucky woman. Born to Quaker parents in Norfolk in 1820, she spent her childhood following her father\u2019s job as a salesman and then a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":6701,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/24-november-on-this-day-in-history.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/24-november-on-this-day-in-history-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/24-november-on-this-day-in-history-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/24-november-on-this-day-in-history.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/24-november-on-this-day-in-history.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/24-november-on-this-day-in-history.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/11\/24-november-on-this-day-in-history.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Dominic Sandbrook Published: Wednesday, 24 November 2021 at 12:00 am 24 November 1877: Black Beauty hits the shelves The anti-animal-cruelty tale enthrals millions of readers Anna Sewell was not a lucky woman. Born to Quaker parents in Norfolk in 1820, she spent her childhood following her father\u2019s job as a salesman and then a…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/6700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Julian Humphrys rounds up smaller anniversaries\u2026<\/h4>\n
24 November 1632\u00a0<\/h6>\n
24 November 1688<\/h6>\n
24 November 1849<\/h6>\n
24 November 1971<\/h6>\n
24 November 1950<\/h3>\n
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